Bliss 2019 Streaming
Lirim Collard
I think this thinking is wrong-headed, personally. It can be very difficult to step-back and consider how much effort you are spending on something, but if you can, and the costs outweigh the benefits, I think you should give up and make a switch.
If you have put time into building a music collection, it maybe you want to demonstrate your knowledge and exquisite taste by some extant creation; your curated music library. In addition, similar to the sunk cost fallacy you might attribute higher value to the library, simply because of the time you spent building it.
That said, there may be reasons that your curated library is of more value to you, if not generally. You may have genuinely difficult-to-find releases not available on streaming services. Streaming services might not be able to deliver music in a level of audio quality that you desire, and so on.
Remember when The Wizard of Oz was an annual event from 1968 to 1975? We waited a whole year to be scared to death by those flying monkeys. But waiting created this wonderful anticipation and made the movie more precious to us.
Or how about Gone with The Wind? After reading the book as a young teen, I was dying to see the movie. But I had to wait. The move premiered in 1942 and was re-released in 1947, 1954, 1961, 1971, and I was finally able to see it when it was shown again in 1974. Oh, the thrill!
But then things began to get easier. Cable networks like HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime started offering major movies a year after their theatrical release with a paid subscription. Later, Netflix started a DVD-by-mail service. Now we could have movies delivered to our house with a monthly subscription fee. Watching favorite movies over and over again was getting easier all the time.
In part, because times are changing. According to a 2023 study by Deloitte Digital Media Trends, while baby boomers still watch TV shows or movies at home, the younger generations tend to spend much of their recreational time on social media, gaming, and music.
Do you think having access to all our favorite movies makes them less special? How many streaming services do you have? Do you plan to cut down or are you happy with what you have? Let me know in the comments below!
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Having grown fed up with the clutter and limitations of physical playback media 15 years ago, I spent several months ripping my entire CD collection into FLAC files which I keep stored on a Western Digital My Cloud EX4100 NAS. This allows me to stream near-CD quality audio to the many Sonos devices and other streamers scattered around my house. The sheer level of convenience for casual listening and background music is hard to beat.
While I love my legacy Sonos gear, recent moves by Sonos have strained my relationship with them, so I was pleased to get the chance to test out the latest iteration of the Bluesound Node Streamer N130, a high-end streaming widget that promises to deliver audiophile-grade streamed music.
It can stream music from a huge range of online services, such as Tidal, Spotify, Qobuz and in my case, Amazon Music. Excited by the prospect of audiophile streamed goodness, I was dying to find out if the new Node streamer lived up to its promises.
As nifty as the controls are, they do unfortunately require that the streamer is placed at the top of any audio equipment in order for the controls to be accessible (you can, however, use the Android/iOS app instead).
Around the back, you get RCA audio outputs, an RCA sub out, coaxial and SPDIF digital outputs. The SPIDIF is a combination analogue input, and there is also a USB input for hooking up external drives/DACs, as well as an Ethernet connection for wired networking. Last (but by no means least), is an HDMI (eARC) port for hooking up compatible TVs. While you get plenty of wired connectivity, wireless is also well-catered for. This takes the form of wireless subwoofer connectivity for a sub, aptX HD capable Bluetooth for listening with Bluetooth headphones or speakers. You can also stream music to the Node using a smartphone or laptop.
Under its hood sits a Quad-Core 1.8ghz ARM Cortex A53 CPU and its DAC is a capable 32-bit/384khz beastie. In use, this setup translated into responsive performance with streaming audio loading and playing almost as quickly as the locally stored media on my network. For serious audiophiles, another major plus is that it is Roon-ready, which means that you can ditch the app and really get down with a clever, intuitive selection system.
In terms of supported audio formats, the Node has your back. It supports FLAC, WAV, and AIFF, and can stream music from all the major streaming services as well as music stored on a NAS or USB-connected external USB drives. It also supports AirPlay 2, so owners of fruity phones, iPads and Macs can stream music from their Apple gear too.
Pat has been talking about tech on TV, radio and print for over 20 years, having served time as a TV tech guy and currently penning reviews for Witchdoctor. He loves nothing more than rolling his sleeves up and playing with shiny gadgets.
Nope, similar to hospitality TV commonly used in hotels & resorts, and, I've used Google Chromecast as well as Roku to connect to onboard WiFi, and just not possible nor practical (ultra high latency & very low speed) to attempt to cast or stream anything at all, not even from stored contents on a tablet.
Older mega ships used HDMI as the input sources and newer ships like the Joy uses a locking RJ-59 (ethernet/coaxial) style input for interactive signal, and they just cannot be bypassed or overridden. If you can disconnect & use your own HDMI connection, you can directly "play" whatever on the HDTV in the stateroom, i.e. Breakaway, Getaway & Escape, these 3 ships ... I can confirm, is possible.
In theory the answer is YES. You can plug in a Roku, Firestick, personal device in to the TV's HDMI port and watch content. Not sure how well streaming content over the ship's internet works as i have not tried that. We haven't cruised since 2019, but have been on NCL, Carnival and RC. We have always brought an iPhone lighting port to HDMI converter and HDMI cord with us to play downloaded TV shows/movies on the TV in our room from a phone/device. Plugged straight in to the HDMI port just as you would a Roku or Firestick. You must purchase a cheap universal programmable TV remote to use for the TV to change inputs. The TV remote provided by the cruise line will not allow you to change the inputs on the TV. We have done this the last handful of times we cruised before COVID. Booked for 2023 and will be bringing our setup again.
Nice ... can you report on the TV brand in use onboard the Spirit ... "Sole" or "LG" - these are the 2 HDTV brand that I've come across. Sole specializes in hospitality TV ... and theirs use HDMI as default input whereas LG default to coaxial/ethernet signals (and, firmware locked on the remote in the stateroom TV, "source" not selectable, AFAIK) That is, however, a direct/simple "casting" of the DVD player's signal output to a monitor, not the same as streaming over WiFi, which is a bit more complicated ...
Just came back on the Oct 10 Prima cruising, and had no issue plugging my firestick into the HDMI port and changing the source. I had loaded TV shows and movies on USB and used the firestick to watch it.
Now, with the availability of Qobuz in the U.S. and its compatibility with the latest line of Yamaha MusicCast speakers and receivers, you can stream high-res music to every room in your home!
To capture every nuance that high-res audio provides, we recommend listening through either a Yamaha MusicCast 50 wireless speaker or a quality set of wired speakers (such as the Yamaha NS-F901) powered with one of our AV receivers like the RX-V685. Needless to say, the better speakers you use, the better the fidelity.
For more information, check out our Voice Control with MusicCast page. Tip: You may want to name each playlist with the name of the service and a number (i.e. Qobuz Playlist 1) to avoid confusion if you use multiple streaming services.
And, even though MusicCast uses Wi-Fi to communicate to multiple rooms at once, you can also use Bluetooth to stream to individual devices in case your Wi-Fi router acts up, which can happen occasionally. To do so, simply open your settings and connect your mobile device to the MusicCast device you want to use. Then open the Qobuz app and select the song, album or playlist you want to play. Finally, press the arrow on the left side of the screen to select the device you want to stream to. Note that Bluetooth does not stream in high-resolution.
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